“A-Ah-! A-Aulak Unrav-!”

  Their eyes sunk into the back of their heads, pulling them further into despair. An aura began to emerge from around them. An aura very similar to the crimson red one Andrew had encountered before. Although, in stark contrast to merely a red atmosphere filling the room, this red aura was being injected into each remaining soldier to such a fast rate that the blood underneath their skin began to boil, their faces becoming bloated, as if they were having an allergic reaction, as well as the entirety of their body. After they swelled up like blueberries their skin grew red, and before they could even so much as take another breath…

  Pop!

  “...”

  “Well, you didn’t say the whole thing, but I assume you meant flight. Where would you guys like to go?”

  —-

  The streets of London were cold that day. An older woman who was wearing a puffy jacket, with her hood up walked through an alleyway while humming a tune to keep her company. Her hair was a pure white, taking the place of the moon, as that night it was hiding away from Earth. Despite that though, her eyes remained hushed, and her heart taken aback as usual by the beautifully lit night sky, she stood still.

  “Hmmm…”

  She smiled sweetly, when suddenly a star had begun to tear through the constellations, flames behind it.

  “Oh my! A shooting star! WhatdoIwishfor,WhatdoIwishfor???”

  With all of her might, she clutched her hands together, and shut her eyes so tightly, that an eyelash had been caught underneath her left eyelid.

  “I wish for…”

  Twenty grandchildren!

  “...”

  Though nothing happened, as expected. The woman continued on about her night. She passed a garbage bin, continuing her song.

  WAAA WAAAA WAAaAAAAaaAaAAaA!

  Suddenly, a faint crowd of wailing could be heard from inside of the bin. She opened it hesitantly. She gasped, covering her mouth.

  The twenty grandchildren she had ordered all laid on eachother wailing for help!

  “Good lord!”

  —------

  Edward and Andrew sat atop of the platform once more. With their bodies beginning to ache terribly and their minds becoming numb the only thing which persisted within them to continue sitting up, was the enlarged diagram plastered on the monitor, alongside a variety of names to the side of the screen in an order of rankings. The one which stood atop in first place was, “The Rooster”, who’s points had depleted from 1,567,345,789 points to 1,567,345,771 points.

  Andrew squinted his eyes reading the rankings closely, whereas Edwards eyelids were beginning to droop terribly. His vision distorted, becoming so blurry that at any moment he could feel his neck, on the verge of disconnecting from his spinal cord. Tilting over to the left side of the platform, Edward caught himself before laying on the platform sleepily.

  “What’s with all of this…?”

  Andrew asked with a hint of amazement in his tone.

  “This is your flight. Like I was saying before, remember?”

  Aulacks tone carried a familiar hint of sass, as it did when the two first met them.

  “You can choose to visit any one of your comrades listed on the map, but don’t be dumb.”

  Oh- Right.

  Andrew’s mind shifted over to the map. All seven continents had been present, South America, North America, Asia, Russia, Africa, Australia and Europe. Strangely enough there were multiple dots scattered about the place, many of them especially In North and South America.

  Others scattered about in Africa, especially in places like Nigeria, Sudan and Angola, others remained in Asia, mainly in China, some in Iran yet very few in Vietnam.

  Overall though, for a majority of the world these red dots did not persist strongly.

  “S-so w-what are w-we spose to do…?”

  Something was not right. Even talking was enough to bring Andrew under a tremendous amount of exhaustion, what was happening to him?!

  “Uh. It’s like I just said. Choose your location on where you want to drop.”

  Drop? Like Fortnite or sumthin’?

  “I-I don’t know what yer talkin’- HACk!”

  He covered his mouth, only for the palm of his hand to be covered in red.

  “W-w-w—!”

  “Does your ignorance really run so deep, or are you just chicken!? You’ve done this before! It was the last thing you did before-”

  Aulack paused suddenly.

  That. That was enough for Andrew’s curiosity to speak. His mind was beginning to race faster and faster- Maybe it was because of his condition- Maybe it was the feelings that had emerged from him beforehand, but he knew something had not been right.

  “I shouldn’t have said that…”

  Aulack said remorsefully.

  “ Let me explain… Every Dead man, like I said, is connected through me. They all share me as their operating system, and I allow them to continue collecting blood, organs and so on to survive… However, the leftover materials they may have from their manic frenzies are donated to other deadmen across the world, understand?”

  Andrew shook his head while wiping the blood from his mouth.

  “Though you humans aren’t so altruistic. So I reward you with points for each donation you make. The more you all manage to acquire for everyone else, the stronger you become. The stronger you become, the faster you retain your sense of humanity.”

  “B-but lemme guess….”

  He raised the palms of his hands grinning, though his eyes carried an intense anger about them.

  “THIS! Is the other drawback, AIN’T IT? A little Push in the right direction, or whatever the hell!? JUST SO WE CAN GO WITH YER SICK-”

  “No. The use of the mechanic isn’t meant to inspire kindness. It’s meant to punish you.”

  “W-wha-?”

  “Every piece of blood,bone,muscle and organ whether it is external or internal. No matter the organism or their purpose must be cherished.”

  The monitor changed, revealing a human body resting in an open field. A gunshot to the chest had killed them. Their face was undisclosed, however, a subtle jerking could be heard on top.

  “See how they nourish and share?”

  What is it talkin’ about–?

  Andrew squinted his eyes. It was a magot by the neck of the human. He watched carefully as the magot had began to naw at the skin, diligently enjoying it’s new found snack. Andrew’s eyes had begun to catch on to the other maggots crowding around the corpses body.

  They teamed by the corpses risk- By their forearms, their thighs, the chest wound.

  “They devour the organs with sincerity.”

  Time had run rampant. The skin had been mowed down to muscle, the muscle had eggs nestling within the warmest parts of the corpse, the muscles had been consumed, the blood drank, and the corpse left as a skeleton.

  “Every. Piece.”

  “W-why are you showin’ me this…?”

  “You promised me you would stop with your waste. I understood you needed protection because you were vulnerable and had forgotten who you were, and yet you wasted the blood, muscles and all with you “flight”. How could you?”

  “Y-you’re the one-”

  “You were supposed to say, no.”

  “A-a-aaahhhh…!”

  Andrew had fallen to the floor. His senses continued to dullen along with Edwards, although his were at a much faster rate. His face began to wrinkle, and the whole of his body began to age rapidly with him.

  “I am your biggest fan. You were number one for two decades because of your contributions… I want to save you…. Mr Rooster.”

  “A-Aulack P-pwease…!”

  Tears welled up in Andrews eyes, as he could feel his body continuing to weight him down, as he couldn’t even so much as look up, nor open his eyes. His thin lips began to dry up, leaving him unable to vocalize his pain, or call Edward for help.

  “No. I will continue to play these clips to help inspire you. For you to see what I see in each and every one of those maggots, and in the contents of you humans.”

  O-Oh GOD! ED’S! PLEASE! PLEASE!

  “We’ll start by revealing the entire body this time. Though this one will be dissected, okay?”

  W-why…?

  The monitor began to flick through a series of channels which showcased even worse off disturbing thumbnails, which showed people, and other deadmen in rather sadistic and gorey positions.

  WHY! WHY! WHY ME-

  —----

  George entered a bathroom. It had been clean too and fro, as the floors were so well washed George had nearly fallen for the floor on his first step. He carefully headed towards the sink, washing his face.

  “...”

  Seeing his wet face in the mirror, he thought back to the soldier's bloody and bruised face from their collision with the building. He thought on and on about the construction workers, as well as their vows to report all that they had seen to the world. He thought about his own helplessness during the battle, yet Alvina’s laughter.

  Alvina…

  He clutched onto the edge of the sink. Thinking about her smile, her cackling had been the one thing that had remained consistent from her- Her intentions were always bizarre, that cackling was the only answer George would receive whenever informing Alvina of the rigorous work they would have to commit to as Deadmen scientist… And yet she always laughed, regardless of the horridness of it all- Despite the lives at stake in each mission they had to be apart of, she laughed and laughed and laughed, AND-

  CRACK!

  As George looked down his mouth let out tiny little moans, shocked by his own impulsiveness to damage anything HQ related. He slowly placed the cracked part of the sink back into place, then speed walked out of the bathroom, before finally slipping near the doorway.

  —-----

  “ALVINA!”

  George yelled furiously as he began to peer his head down a white corridor. Through the windows of the building sat a mountain range, and a vast stretch of ocean which went beyond any of the scope of New York, or any part of America.

  “ALVINA!”

  As he traveled down the corridor, he found a room in which a familiar cackling could be heard. He immediately opened it, to find activating a bone saw.

  BRZZZZZZZZ!!!

  His eyes shot down to the man she was operating on- The soldier from before! Her arm slowly but surely came down towards the soldiers inner elbow as he squirmed helplessly with tears in his eyes.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “ALVINA, NO!”

  He charged her, knocking the bone saw from out of her hand, causing it to jump around out of control on the marbled tiles.

  “Yo! Georgie! What the hell do you think your doing in my crib! This here is my domain, scram! Get out! Kick rocks!”

  “What are YOU doing!? This man had saved me- He saved EVERYONE! Every soldier managed to survive the debris because of Aluack- But that was only because he bought them time from Andrew Campbell!”

  She rolled her eyes. She walked away from George, picking up the eccentric bone saw, turning it off.

  “Look.”

  Her tone darkened as she continued to grin ear to ear.

  “The major ordered me to dissect “Mr Fingal” for research purposes. I don’t care about your sappy attachments, a deadman is still a deadman, you know that.”

  “Then- then I’ll talk to the major! Just don’t touch him! He didn’t do anything wrong!

  She frowned.

  “If you were more honest, we could get along better you know…?!”

  “Then please indulge me Alvina, what did he do?!”

  She raised one finger in front of George’s face, moving closer.

  “NUMBER ONE! Forcing all of our soldiers to relocate all the way over in London, God knows where, because he let Andrew Campbell’s fighter body infiltrate through his defenses!”

  “Yes- I understand that may’ve been bad- but that was-!”

  She raised a second finger, getting even closer to George, he continually backed away nervously.

  “NUMBER TWO! Failing the mission of not only capturing Andrew Campbell, and nearly KILLING you through their own STUPID actions!”

  “In the heat of the moment no one-!”

  “AND FINALLY! NUMBER THREE!”

  At this point Alvina was so close to George, she began forcefully ramming all three points onto his forehead, both literally and figuratively.

  “Their complete and utter incompetence in keeping the threat of Deadman away from the public…Know what that means?”

  He stayed silent, keeping his gaze towards the floor.

  “FAH! Cmon! Cmon! Isn’t it obvious? Cmon!”

  She leaned closer to his ear, whispering.

  No..!

  He pulled away from her.

  I can’t…!

  “THE MAJOR WOULD NEVER HEAR YOU FOR THAT! NEVER!”

  “Oh you know how I hate the word never…”

  She walked past him towards the front door.

  “Remember Oh GREAT! Mentor GEORGE! I always get my way!”

  She then rushed out of the room, into the hallway.

  George then approached the operating table in which the soldier shivered uproariously. Upon closer inspection, his face was not the only badly wounded part of his body. As his body had been torn asunder from the front- huge gashes ran across his shoulders, all the way down to his forearms, an x shaped line of stitches extended from his pecs all the way to his back, and lastly, a line of cigar burns followed across his stomach.

  “Hey…”

  “...”

  “...She’ll… Be gone for now… She’s off to convince the major of something pretty dubious… As you can obviously imagine…”

  George continued to stare into his eyes, hoping for a reaction, only to find an immovable, dark cloud from his pupils. Someone stared back into his eyes finding the same thing.

  “... Fingal was it…? Is that a last name, or…?”

  Fingal took a shallow breath, swallowing back his tears as he continued to stare up at the ceiling.

  “No. No last name.”

  “... It’s a nice name… Really… And… I just wanted to tell you that… No one… Will be dissecting you. As long as I’m able to deter it for long enough.”

  “...”

  “What I mean by that, is that… Well, obviously, no human has ever heard of your existence in a collective sense. Maybe mythos here and there, and the occasional “bigfoot” sighting , but… Your race was never taken seriously… Although you dead men have it in you to recycle our life energy, and warp our humanity in a very disturbing way- at least to me personally… A revolution is soon to be coming… Because without you, our balance of life would look very different. Soon enough, HQ will have to tell everyone of your usefulness.”

  “...”

  “Soon enough, people will start realizing your worth.”

  “Soon enough, Alvina will ever regret chasing after-”

  “STOP.”

  George paused, taken aback by Fingal’s sudden assertiveness.

  “D-do you know why I wore that mask…? It was because…. Because I’ve always been REPULSIVE TO EVERYTHING! AND EVERYONE!”

  “...”

  “You’re trying to inspire me with “hope”, but all you can really do is tell me the same thing everyone’s been telling me my whole LIFE- That I’m useless- disposable- UNWANTED until proven otherwise… YOU’RE JUST THE SAME!”

  “M-me!? No! Fingal- Please I believe you’re-”

  “NO. I DON’T BELIEVE IN ANYTHING ANYMORE. YOU SAY THAT, BUT YOU COULDN’T BOTHER TO FIGHT ALONGSIDE ME! YOU COULDN’T EVEN BOTHER TELLING THE MAJOR OF WHAT I TRIED TO DO- BECAUSE YOU’RE SCARED! THAT’S HOW I KNOW YOU COULDN’T BELIEVE!”

  Tears rolled down Fingal's face. Some seeping into the gashes of his shoulders.

  “Y-you’re all just afraid… Like me… There’s always someone who has their thumb over you, isn’t there…?”

  George reflected upon those words. Fear. He had just been so infuriated by Alvina’s face. Her mere existence, so why did he cower just now? Why couldn’t he speak? Was it her demeanor? Her way of undermining his attempts to emphasize with the enemy- The innocent PEOPLE born in a way they can’t help…?

  Unable to see where the truth started, and the facade ended he closed his eyes for a few moments. Placing his hand on the only unbruised spot of Fingal’s stomach..

  “...W-what are you doing?”

  “... I will save you.”

  He patted his stomach.

  “I won’t be shallow anymore. I promise.”

  No. He wouldn’t be. Because he had a plan.

  —--

  Edward woke up, his eyes still droopy though more out of genuine tiredness, and less out of nausea as it had been beforehand. His mind immediately ran to the earlier events of Andrew’s strange behavior. Sitting up, he had anticipated the same tiredness from beforehand. He stared down at the palm of his hands, expecting his eyes to meet with his withered away fingers once more, only to find that his fingers had returned to the firmness it once was beforehand.

  He clenched his fists, thankful.

  Unfortunately, this thankfulness would be grounded to a halt, as his eyes met with a hunched over, Fainted Andrew on his knees.

  “Oh- GOD, WHAT NOW?!”

  Edward pulled Andrews' sturdy body onto the center of the platform, as it had been before. Looking down at Andrew’s face, he had taken notice of the disturbing look across his face.

  “INo– no I didn’t- I- I never woulda—”

  Andrew’s lips were tied together, stringing one worded sentences with little breaks in between them, and desperation in them.

  “Andrew- Andrew! Speak to me!”

  He would put Andrew over his shoulder, hugging him tightly like a newborn baby.

  No!NO!NO!

  He began to tap on Andrews back, thinking back to May- singing sweet nothings into his ear to bring back any potential response, even if it were something as demeaning as “Get off of me!”Edward needed to elicit any response he could!

  Unsurprisingly. Nothing worked, causing tears to well up in Edwards eyes. As his tears fell onto the platform, they reflected the monitor's previous map of the world and world ranking among Dead Men. Edward looked up at Aulack enraged.

  “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HIM!?”

  “Nothing. I only gave him a warning for the next time he overexerts resources unnecessarily, and ironically he overexerted himself with his sensitivity.”

  “WHAT. DID. YOU. SHOW. HIM.”

  “...”

  Several images flashed by the screen, giving Edward’s eyes enough time to at least register all of the maggots and corpses.

  “A-AH!”

  He slightly bounced backwards, nearly falling off the platform with Andrew.

  “There we go again… That sensitivity…”

  Edward closed his eyes suppressing the photos…Where some of them were alive- Were they being tortured- WHY WERE THEY SO INJURED- HOW DID-!

  “You know Mr Edward Matthews.”

  Edward clutched onto Edward breaking out in a sweat.

  “This lesson wouldn’t need to be enforced if only you two understood the stakes of the world's situation… Do you know how many Deadmen there are on the planet?”

  He remained silent out of fear for answering wrong, clutching his teeth.

  “1,345 Deadmen. It’s not a lot, is it? That’s because a person carrying a Dead Man's genetics without dying a stillborn is rare. Andrew here managed to do so… And look.”

  The ranking of Deadmen was zoomed in on the monitor.

  “He’s even on the top of the leaderboard for strongest.”

  “W-wait… Wait… That’s not him… You can’t fool me….!”

  “I’m not fooling you. There’s no reason to. Haven’t you ever noticed it? His gap of memories? The mention of deadmen without ever knowing what it is? That’s all a bi-product of the arrangement we made.”

  Arrangement- Andrew and that THING made an arrangement- For what- WHAT-WHAT?

  “For consuming the most human beings and fellow Deadmen, managing to gather up enough resources to allow Deadmen to hide amongst humans, and creating a cycle of longevity to continue the trend of Deadmen, he was rewarded with a type of reboot. Or… A True flight. He was given the choice to go anywhere in the world without the memories carried from his old life. Anywhere without having to fight so hard anymore.”

  “WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!? I NEVER- HE COULDN’T!”

  But couldn’t he? He had thought, considering Andrew’s vague backstory. He had never known parents- Likely because they died from him cannibalizing them, but he also didn’t know anything about his old life… Amnesia was a rare thing too… So it wasn’t like…

  “Tick tock, Tick tock Mr Edward Matthews.”

  “W-What do you want!?”

  “...I want you to go! LEAVE. Let him keep racking up points for the new generation of Deadmen in need!”

  The monitor switched over to the map of the world. Aulack zoomed into North America,then into the USA, then into New York, then into Brooklyn.

  Aulack continued to scroll, zooming further and further into Brooklyn, searching for something. Until…

  “There we go…”

  A red dot appeared on the screen, it read, “---------”.

  —----

  A woman and her child sat in a holding cell. This woman wore a familiar blue parka, holding her daughter over her shoulder. Both of them had numbers branded across their necks. Their stomachs growled with intense ferocity. The little girl proceeded to sink her teeth into her mothers parka, imagining it to be food while squealing in pain.

  Outside the cell, a line of dozen other children, and adults sat in their cells depressingly. Some yelled, cried, and screamed for help, others cried, though what they all shared were a serial number placed on a variety of different areas of their body.

  Creek.

  A door opened, drawing most of the imprisoned attention. The daughter of the woman with the blue parka stretched her head over, revealing a mole.

  As the door closed behind a set of heavy feet entering the room, the mother scowled.

  “What do you want?”

  George gulped silently.

  “... I’m… I’m here to free you.”

  She raised an eyebrow. All other prisoners in the room looked intently in George’s direction, hoping he would look at them.

  “Free us? HA!”

  She scoffed.

  “Like you have the clearance for that- And even if you did, where’s the other one, huh? The one I had an “affair” with? Shouldn’t we be together or something!?”

  He clutched his blood soaked hand.

  “Look… I understand why you’re upset- REALLY, I do, but…”

  He leaned towards the prison cell, lowering his voice.

  “The truth is… We never planned on keeping you here. We knew you weren’t a Dead man.”

  A vein popped at the temple of her head as May continued to nobble her hood.

  “Then WHY, WHY COULDN’T YOU PEOPLE HAVE THE DECENCY TO AT LEAST FEED US. WE’VE BEEN HERE FOR A WEEK- AND NO ONE HAS GIVEN US A MEAL.”

  George paused. His mind hammering Fingal’s words.

  “Feed you… Well… If you leave your cell, put on your hoods, and promise not to hurt me, I will. I’ll feed you everything our organization couldn’t.”

  “Hell no. I don’t trust a word you-”

  He quickly retrieved a key from his pocket, causing several other prisoners to riot and protest, Ellen went up, about to hit George away, until he pulled out a gun.

  “QUIET! EVERYONE BE QUIET! I WILL FREE YOU ALL, ALRIGHT!? ALL I ASK FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND YOU WILL ALL BE FREED!”

  The room had silenced itself, May laughed, still not understanding the situation, but clearly understanding the word “freed”.

  —---

  “W-wha… How could she…”

  “Although it’s not your wife, a deadman is still a deadman, right? It’s still family.”

  “M-may…”

  —------

  They would all traverse further into the prison room, George continually unlocked doors which held research chambers involving multiple other Deadmen strapped to tables like Fingal. Eventually, they all made it to a short hallway, containing one emergency exit.

  “...Once I sound this alarm… our lives may never return to normal… We may have to be on the run our whole lives…”

  He glanced over to the prisoners.

  “Especially those of you who may be actual Deadmen… However, we are all human… We all have the right to live regardless of the law, so PLEASE! Use your powers one last time to help aid us in this final escapade! To show the world your worth!

  —-------

  “W-why can’t I…”

  Edward began scratching at his head confusedly. Why? Why couldn’t he access the flight mechanic, WHY!?

  “No- this isn’t fair- IT ISN'T’T! IT’S BEEN WEEKS SINCE I’VE SEEN HER- THEM LAST- Those DOGS EVEN HAVE THE GAUL TO PUT THEM TOGETHER- MY DAUGHTER IS NOT A DEAD MAN. SHE IS NOT. SHE IS NOT.”

  With this undeniable evidence that his daughter truly was alive, Edward quickly rush over to Andrew, shaking him furiously.

  “ANDREW. ANDREW! GET. UP!”

  “...”

  It worked. Andrew’s endless moans, and silent speech had ended. Though his eyes were tired. A familiar darkness has covered the ebbs of his pupil. One Edward immediately recognized.

  “I NEED YOU. YOU NEED TO CONFIRM THIS IS WHERE WE’RE GOING, NOW. NOW!”

  He drew his attention to the monitor.

  “....?”

  May Matthews.

  May,

  May.

  May.

  Andrew had never met May. He had never seen her before, though he’s heard stories from Edward. ….Something within him was beginning to harden as he realized this was Edward’s daughter… The one Edward had always raved on about, the light of his life.

  The one Andrew had apparently stolen from him.

  “COME ON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? CONFIRM!”

  The one Andrew had inconvenienced through his mere existence. The one Andrew would only plague with more problems.

  If he were really responsible for the cycle of blood, muscle, brain- whatever in Deadmen. Had he actually perpetuated the cycle so far it had reached Edwards family… Maybe the existence of Dead men wasn't a bad thing.

  If they weren’t a bad thing, why would Edward involve himself in Deadman affairs? Why bring this to HIS doorstep? Why stop their peaceful lives for a false accusation he couldn’t even confront Andrew about seriously?

  If Andrew Campbell had been the fly in Edward Matthew’s life- The fly that would continue to pester him and bring more tragedy- which only encouraged these manic episodes, what hope would there be to bring a family together?

  But then again.

  He didn’t have to be Andrew Campbell.

  He stood up.

  “Aulack….”

  No. Those memories began flooding back… Memories of Dead Men… Only Dead Men… That’s all there was… The hunger and starvation would stifle his creativity. He squandered his days preying on people, wishing for the next confrontation he would have.

  He wanted to bring himself closer and closer to beating those other deadmen.

  Was it out of obligation to continue that cycle? He thought whilst watching the maggots eat away at a dismembered corpse.

  Was it for the preservation of human body parts like Aulack had taught him? In a way.

  What it really boiled down to was pride. The excessive, arrogant, and downright disgusting kind of pride Andrew had held during that period of his life.

  Pride to never change your ways. To accept the monster people label you as being born different and owning it.

  Just like all of those bodies Andrew had sunk his self worth into, his ego was the most valuable thing to him.

  “Send us to May.”

  It is.

  —------------

  As Alvina left the Major’s office she gave a more solemn smirk then usual.

  I guess that’s that then…

  She dragged her hand down the railing of the stairs.

  These deadmen are all terrible. Can’t they see that…?

  People began to wail uproariously, security began to swarm onto the left wing of the building, though Alvina had been so deeply entrapped in her thoughts, that nothing seemed to matter to her.

  She held back up her camera, studying Andrew and Edward’s battle body carefully.

  All of them… They just… They NEED to be known. IN WHAT WORLD IS IT NOT RIGHT TO KNOW!? At any moment they could be lurking- At any moment a man can suddenly become a deadman- We no longer live in a world with strict rules…

  “Isn’t that right, Aulauck…?”

  She smirked, looking up at the sky,

  What even is it? It gives us the clues we need to kill the deadmen that aren’t useful to it, but keeps the ones that are hidden away… Maybe Andrew Campbell is one of those Deadmen and he wasn’t transformed- I’m not sure. But he is the key.

  Alvina entered the room, Fingal stared up at the ceiling unconcerned.

  If just one person could see this- When I can convince the major…

  She began frothing at the mouth.

  I’ll save humanity…! I’ll usher in a new age of everything! Regardless of consequences- SCREW THOSE CONSEQUENCES! REGARDLESS OF SIN OR ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THOSE THAT TAKE MY FOOTAGE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, I CAN SEE A REAL WORLD! A WORLD NOT BOUND BY LIES OR HALF TRUTHS- BUT ONE AWARE OF ITSELF, AND ABLE TO REACT TRUTHFULLY…

  “That’s… The world that I want…”

  “... Sorry… did you-”

  Red lights filled the perimeter- The three of them ran out of the building interrupting both of their trains of thought.

  “Huh… What the hell? D-DAMN! The suspects managed to squeeze their little-”

  BAM! BAM!

  “Oh hell no!”

  Alvina locked the door of the room.

  “W-what!? What’s going on!??”

  “Ahhhhhhh….!”

  “WHAT!? WHAT!?”

  “It’s just red- red everywhere- WAIT!”

  “WHAT!?”

  BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

  SPLAT!

  “A-An… Campbell? What is it doing with that… A child…?”

  “...”

  Alvina turned off the remaining light in the room, turning over the table Fingal had been laying across. They stared at each other. One looking down, the other looking up as footsteps approached the door, then left.

  “... A-are you not…”

  Alvina covered Fingals thin lips. Crawling from underneath her hiding spot, his eyes following her.

  As she rose from underneath the bed, the red creature held May over a grass field.

  —------

  “... There are no reasons for my actions, promise. Think of it as shared bloodlust from my past life, and this life, Ed’s. I didn’t do this outta rage, hate, or any sorta of obligation. I am a monster.”

  —--

  The red creature let her down gently.

  —--

  “It looks like somehow though, your kid is a deadman too… Try usin’ this cycle I innovated on to help ‘er eat, kay?. You’re the father. So ya gotta look after her and everythin’...”

  “...”

  —--

  Alvina hesitantly grabbed her camera, taking a picture.